


The Grimm Adventures of Qrow and Jimmy

by alaswoeisme



Category: RWBY
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Horror, Mindfuck, Nightmare, Psychological, Quest, dream - Freeform, mind-control, mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-31 00:37:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13963515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alaswoeisme/pseuds/alaswoeisme
Summary: Qrow goes on a mission which turns out to be mindfuckception. "...my friends were all dead and their skins had been used as costumes. Was this hell? Where was I? I had no idea what to do. Could I escape? What the hell was going on? What the fuck? I couldn’t even land this fucking ship… "





	The Grimm Adventures of Qrow and Jimmy

**Author's Note:**

> This whole fic is based on a dream I had a couple of days ago and by “based on” I mean that I haven’t changed anything. Consequently, the plot may be lacking but I chose to retell my dream authentically rather than use it as an inspiration for a fic. I sometimes have very vivid dreams and I’m sometimes someone else in them.

I was on a mission with Jimmy. Well, I was on a mission and Jimmy was there to drop me off and pick me up, possibly lend a hand in the (un?)likely event that I lost my weapon, a limb or whatever. So, the mission was to free a town from the Grimm presence it had recently fallen under. This town was situated between two brooks and the remaining two borders were hills. Basically, the town’s area was like a rectangle, the long sides were the brooks and the short sides were the woody hills. At the foot of one, there was a church that looked more like a small cathedral, surrounded by a cemetery. Down the main road there were houses, a blacksmith, an inn, cafeterias, shops, larger buildings, a school, playgrounds, a hospital, even local businesses… a typical Remnant town. Yet somehow strange. At the edge of town, the end opposite the church, there was a cave and a path after it, leading up the hill and to the next settlement, which was too far off to journey on foot. I was supposed to head in that direction after I was done here.

It was day-time but cloudy so there was no sun and no shadows. I didn’t see any Grimm though. I debated in the direction of which hill to head – the other half of the town would have to wait so I needed to pick the area that needed me most. But nothing seemed out of place. There was no panic. So I just headed in some direction and slashed through the random stray Grimm that attacked me every now and again. Everything was still and peaceful. As if no one had seen those Grimm.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting at a café, drinking and talking to a lovely blond woman. She seemed familiar somehow. She wasn’t beautiful, at least her face didn’t have a refined beauty about it, but it was pleasant, warm, welcoming and intelligent and she had a great body. A little too lean maybe but she exuded an aura of confidence which more than made up for her physical frailness. Long yellow hair in a ponytail swished in every direction when she gesticulated. She was in her late twenties, I thought, but she had a professional voice and tone.

Then came an associate of hers. Or an advisor, lawyer or who knows what. He started telling her how he had found her a new programme for quitting smoking. He sounded more like a salesman than anything else. Using catchy excited language rather than logic to make his point. Superlatives, slogans even. He was selling to her and not advising her. His appearance and speech were sleek and he seemed like a borderline conman. But he was an actual lawyer.

He was still advertising stuff when I finished my drink and ordered a cocktail. Something with clear concentrated liquor and some kind of vegetable… I forgot the name. I drank up all the alcohol because it was floating at the top and I was left with vegetable juice at the bottom of my glass. The woman was tired of listening to him and so she turned to me, telling me to finish my drink because I didn’t look like someone that got enough vitamins. I rolled my eyes. The lawyer proceeded to pour forth reasons why she should change her job and was almost teaching her how to live. She and I were both annoyed. And I was drunk as well. So I got up suddenly, slammed my glass onto the table and said:

‘You know what? I’m gonna finish that drink.’

So I swallowed the juice in one go and made a worse face than I had made when drinking the alcoholic concentrate. My female companion suddenly got inspired too and rose, saying to her advisor:

‘You know what?’ mimicking my tone, ‘I’m quitting smoking,’ meaning that she didn’t need a programme.

I got even more excited and banged my empty bottle on the table, almost shouting:

‘I’m quitting drinking!’ deciding that now was a good time for us to get rid of all our harmful habits.

‘And I’m changing my job!’ she echoed.

So all the life decisions that the lawyer was insisting on were suddenly made, along with some of mine, but not in the way he expected. So he sat there. Silent, can you imagine?

‘And I’m quitting -you-!’ the blonde said defiantly, staring daggers at the funny little man.

I paid for all the drinks and proceeded to walk her home. Along the way she kept explaining how she would start her own business, starting with a home office. She was in the services sector but I don’t know exactly what her job was. She told me where she lived, where her office would be and asked if I would help with rearranging the furniture because I looked very strong, which I found strange, first because I don’t and second, because she had said I didn’t look like someone that got enough nutrition. I agreed to help, not reading anything into that.

So I continued scouting the town and killing random Grimm. When the time for me to visit the pretty blonde came, I headed to where she had said she lived. The address she’d given me turned out to be some kind of establishment. So I went in, bought a drink, of course, and took a second to soak up the friendly neighbourhood atmosphere. Self-service, low prices, customers that knew the bartender, small place… It was something between a shop and a bar. You could buy your drink and take the bottle with you without sitting down or taking a glass from the bar.

I called my blond friend on my scroll and went out with my bottle to try and find her. Turned out her door was a hundred yards away. So, I went up to her apartment and saw her at the doorway, waiting for me. She was wearing a beautiful formal white dress, which was a striking contrast with the casual clothes I had seen her in at the bar. Her hair was down and had curls now. While she invited me to come in, I wondered why she was wearing that. When her gaze shifted to the bottle in my hand, I remembered my fleeting promise about quitting drinking. She made a face but said nothing. Neither did I.

I helped her rearrange the place, moving stuff around easily and sipping my drink leisurely. We spoke about insignificant topics and when we were done reorganising, she thanked me, wrapping her arms around my neck. It felt odd. I felt odd. I wasn’t impressed or interested. It felt off. Even though she was attractive, seductively dressed and showing a fair amount of cleavage, I didn’t want anything. We sat on the edge of the bed. I told her I respected her too much to make an advance or some other shit like that. She was okay with that, she said. Standing up, she explained she would change as the dress wasn’t comfortable at all. So, yeah. She took the dress off. She didn’t look that lean. She had huge perky breasts, milky white skin and not a single hair in sight. I was confused by that point. Was she still coming onto me? Was she serious about being okay with me not wanting anything… Despite the insignificant amounts of alcohol, my brain had a strangely hard time processing events. So, in the end, I was like:

‘What the heck,’ and I put my hands on her waist. She was icy cold. I thought nothing of it. The dress had been revealing, after all, not covering much, so I just assumed she was cold.

And then shit hit the fan. Everything went into psycho mode. The nightmare began. Adventure to mindfuck in zero seconds.

Standing behind her, I kissed her neck, biting it gently, but then her skin tore open and blood squirted out and into my mouth. Pitch black blood that stung and burned my mouth. Bitter and sandy like charcoal. I pulled back. She turned towards me. Her eyes went black. Extended down. I froze. Her mouth opened 3 feet wide – her jaw dropped to the floor. A black creature resembling a mantis began to make its way out of the equally black maw. This was Grimm. The creature shed its skin – the blonde’s visage – and I was like “what the fuck man the hell is this shit oh dogs and goddesses…” I wasn’t scared. I was just mindraped.

In a fraction of a second, the hideous critter was slashed in two. My scythe was covered in the rancid black liquid. I started spitting violently, relieved that the burning sensation was subsiding. It was at about that time when I realised why the woman hadn’t interested me. I’d felt something was wrong. She was never human.

Leaving the apartment, I scrutinised the people around me. Everyone I saw, the cleaning ladies in the cafes, the children at the school and playgrounds, everyone was giving me that off-feel. I was gripping my weapon with great force. They knew I knew. They all attacked. Slashing in all directions, I ran along the town streets, parallel to the two brooks, headed for that path at the far end where I knew I was supposed to go after my mission was completed. I took my scroll out, speed-dialling Jimmy. General James Ironwood.

‘Jimmy, there are no survivors. Repeat. No survivors. We’re too late. Nuke the whole town, Jimmy!’

His response included the argument that I was still there but I assured him that I had all my aura and would survive the wave of flames. I begged him to just nuke this town. We were out of time, I insisted, and he had to destroy the monsters before they got out of range and could scurry off and infect other towns.

Jimmy was puzzled but believed me, of course. We’d been colleagues (sort of) for so long. He agreed and told me the impact would come in 100 seconds. “Perfect,” I told him, still running and slashing through the monsters that kept coming at me, having slipped out of people’s mouths right before my very eyes. It was like they took their human clothes off. Disturbing shit.

Then I tripped into my favourite lawyer who was cowering and sobbing. I thought to myself, Nah, he’s got talent, no way he’s not human. So I took him with me. Dragged him, more like it. Defending him against the Grimm, we went towards the pick-up point. I told him:

‘Chillax, man. My colleague’s gonna nuke ‘em now. All we gotta do is get away. Otherwise you’re gonna get nuked too. And your skeleton’s gonna crumble into dust, basically.’

This motivated him a little and he started running too so I didn’t have to drag him anymore. But we didn’t reach our goal in time. I heard the nuke behind me, knew we were in range and wondered what to do. I’m a huntsman. I have an aura that can protect me but this guy had little outside of a fast tongue. So I pushed him to the ground, curled him up into a ball and spread myself onto him to protect him from the blast. Jimmy’s bomb sent concentric circles of flame, leaving nothing standing in their wake. Every Grimm, tree and structure was reduced to ash. My folded scythe on my back was made from a more durable material and so it wasn’t damaged. But the flames incinerated my clothes, sparing only my pelvis because of the scythe. So I was censored, at least. My aura protected my body but my sleeves, cape, everything was burned to nothing.

Getting up, I asked my legal friend if he was okay.

‘Yes,’ was all he said in a very serious tone.

A civilian can’t be okay after something like this, I thought. Staring at him, I felt the off-thing. Oddly enough, he stared me back in the eye, explaining how the people in that town had always seemed off to him. It was as if he was using my own words. Telling me exactly what I wanted to hear in the way that I would say it. I extended my scythe and he extended his eyes and mouth, letting loose a mantis-like beast to attack me. Slash. In two. ‘Damn,’ I thought, ‘this one was much more advanced. These mind-control parasitic Grimm or brain/body-consuming Grimm, or whatever they are, can successfully pass as people. They can even tap into their personalities. This one could even pull the salesman-style off.’ My mind was so severely fucked that it was really sore.

I continued in the direction of the pick-up point. Sure enough, Jimmy was there to collect me in his airship. The space inside was bright and I saw the shadows that everything and everyone cast. The eeriness I had felt down there was gone. He took one look at me, after I had come on board, and started laughing at my clothes. Or lack of such. He did ask me though if I was hurt. I replied that I was okay, walking over to him. I looked him in the eye, doubt in mine, examining him, scanning for an off-feel. He was puzzled.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

I kept staring at him, knowing that when the Grimm thought I was in doubt, they revealed themselves. I told Jimmy about them and their black blood and so on. I nicked the back of my hand with my scythe to show him my blood was red. He took the blade in his palm, cutting himself and showing me proof. He said we’d nuked them all and everything was okay. I gave my comrade a hearty embrace, wrapping my arms around his and patting his back. Again, this felt off. He was far too comfortable in this hug. Just because I was comfortable didn’t mean he would be. And then it dawned on me. They did what I expected. Every time they did something, they checked against my mind. But what they failed to realise was the discrepancy between how I think and how I know others think. I had no problem hugging Jimmy in front of his crew but he would definitely object. But the Grimm didn’t know my choices would be different from the choices of those I interact with. And with the blonde… They knew I would jump at the opportunity of sex but what they didn’t expect was that sexual attraction is very intuitive and I instinctively didn’t want that “woman”. So I decided to check my theory. I kept hugging James, not letting go for ten seconds, then fifteen. Pushing the limits of their game. I already knew this wasn’t Jimmy. He would have disengaged long ago regardless of whether I had or not. He would have pulled back, cleared his throat and said in an even tone: Keep it professional, Branwen. And this “Jimmy” was just standing here and hugging me.

So I pulled back, scythe in hand, and everyone attacked me. The whole crew, mock-Jimmy, even the sanitising team. They slithered out of their skins, swarmed me and the rape against my psyche was too much. I screamed and resisted and fought against them but I had no idea if the ship was real, if the Grimm had made copies of these people, scanning my mind for the building blocks, or if my friends were all dead and their skins had been used as costumes. Was this hell? Where was I? I had no idea what to do. Could I escape? What the hell was going on? What the fuck? I couldn’t even land this fucking ship… I hoped I would be able to kill them all, jump off the ship and fly down as a crow. But the panic was too much. It would attract even more of these. I could see them in the distance. In the clearings between the trees. Hordes of Grimm. All kinds too. I really had no idea what was happening, where I was, what I was going to do and what had really happened. Was anyone alive on Remnant? Was I? Had we all been consumed by these insectoids? I’d lost it.

But then I realised everything had happened the way I had expected it to. In a way. All this was a construct that reflected my own mind. Like a really bad nightmare. No one had said or done anything to surprise me because the script followed my expectations. When the blonde saw the bottle, after I’d promised not to drink anymore, she didn’t say anything because I have no idea what a person would say in such a situation. When I bit her, her skin broke because the point of a bite, usually, is to do damage. But the Grimm didn’t know about the sexual variety. I hadn’t even heard a single name in that town. Everything clicked into place. Nothing was original. This had to be a dream. Even the town was something I had seen in a computer game probably.

Then I felt someone shake me. But not any of my opponents. I came to, it seemed. I was in a completely different place. This was a forest and I could see the shattered moon above. Around me were Oz, Ruby, Yang and Tai. I was still in shock when they explained that a mind-control Grimm had attacked me. Tried to consume my mind. Make me go insane with fear. But Oz had been able to expel it. I was shaking. Wondering if this was the truth. Everyone was looking at me with apparent worry, thinking I might suffer permanent damage. Perhaps a part of my brain had already been eaten by the bugs? I kept shifting my gaze between them, scared now, holding my scythe with one hand. Oz kept speaking softly to me. Reassuring me it was all right now. He put his hand on my shoulder, slowly and cautiously. He assured me that nothing of that had happened, that the whole mission was a construct of my mind, spun by the Grimm. I kept silent. Still sitting up, not daring to move. I asked, finally:

‘Alright, if it was all a construct, how comes you know about what happened or didn’t happen? How do you know about the mission?’

‘You were talking in your sleep,’ he explained simply.

‘Yeah,’ Yang added, ‘the sex was the best part.’

That’s when I knew it really was alright now. I was with my friends and family and they were real. Because I hadn’t expected that from Yang even though it fit her personality perfectly.

**Author's Note:**

> And then my alarm went off, waking me up for real. So, yeah. The feeling of being Qrow was very interesting. Physically pleasing but emotionally exhausting. I felt my body strong and fast, my long limbs coordinated and precise. The opposite of what they are irl. And I felt his sadness at the back of my mind… Maybe I should cut down on the drugs… And, yeah. The town was actually Tristram with small modifications. The original from Diablo (1996).


End file.
